Harvesting is an important time in the agricultural industry especially in the areas of certain types of produce such as but not limited to citrus. Ensuring a good yield from the crop and delivering to market in a timely manner can mean millions of dollars to a single produce farmer. Depending on the type of produce, there have been many types of harvesting techniques employed over the years. Conventional techniques range from utilizing crews of labor to hand pick the produce to various automated machines.
One problem with conventional harvesting techniques such as utilizing crews of labor is the cost and effectiveness. Utilizing crews of labor is often very slow and the cost for the grower to employ this technique is often very high as this harvesting technique can take days or weeks. Another issue with conventional harvesting techniques is the current technology utilized to automate harvest. By way of example but not limitation, it is common in the citrus industry to utilize machinery that harvests the produce by vigorously shaking the tree. The falling fruit is collected either manually or by automated belts and deposited for shipment. One problem with this technique is that it causes long-term damage to the tree. Orange trees in particular have shown that once subjected to this type of harvesting the life span of the tree is shortened to only a few years. This is undesirable as it creates the need to continually develop and grow new trees, which can be an issue with limited land availability.
Other current types of automated technology that is utilized for fruit harvesting include vacuum type apparatus and various mechanical pickers. These types of devices have shown to be difficult to manipulate and cost prohibitive to operate.
Accordingly, there is a need for an automated produce harvester that is operable to efficiently harvest fruit from a tree wherein the automated produce harvester is constructed and utilizes a technique that substantially inhibits damage to the tree during the harvesting process.